Category: public transport

We spent last weekend at Castlemaine and became caught up in the Castlemaine Arts festival. See http://castlemainefestival.com.au/ On Saturday we were chasing an open artists workshop trail on a back road near Walmer/Muckleford when we came upon this train.

The BUNYIP is a mythical Australian Aboriginal creature, large , black, living in swamps and marshes and active after dark. Bunyip stories made sure children did not stray at night. To support this story an active night bird called the Australasian Bittern lives in swamps and makes incredibly spine chilling boom boom noises. I could not resist the opportunity for metaphor.

There is a historical train society that maintains the rail link between Castlemaine and Maldon and regularly runs tourist trips between the 2 towns and were certainly in action with the festival. The train and rolling stock predates the mid C20th . At the time I felt haiku coming on, then I discovered the one a week Photo Challenge word challenge this week is HISTORICAL . This is my challenge. For this years challenge planned by Cathy and Sandra visit Cathy’s blog at https://nanacathydotcom.wordpress.com/one-a-week-photo-challenge-2017/

Unless your reading of Japanese is excellent I shall explain this story. Back in 2002 my little sister in Nara Japan emailed me this article with an English translation. It seems that on a summers day in August a person was walking their Afghan Hound near Osaka station in central Osaka during early morning peak hour, (I would never do that having been there and experienced the noise and activity).

Anyway, the hound broke loose from the walker and took off into the crowd and apparently entered the main entrance of Osaka Station. Accounts of what happened next are varied and bizarre, however the dog found its way down into one of the many subways running beneath the central station, leapt off a platform and took off up the tunnel. Fortunately for the dog a very efficient emergency lock down system was immediately activated. ( I will not explain why the Japanese have such systems but if interested you can find out)

At some point during the next half hour the dogs exploration of the subway system ended when it emerged up onto a platform at another station and merged with a very packed waiting group of stranded passengers.

Police arrested the dog and escorted it to a police station. Meanwhile the entire railway network of central Osaka was halted and took some time to restart.

The cost of this activity was several million Yen as chaos reigned across the city for hours, and apparently the instigator of interruptions to the subway system are charged for the cost. The dog’s beloved could not be traced and for obvious financial reasons the owner never turned up to be re-united with the poor pooch.

Having an Afghan Kara living with us at the timeI felt for the dog knowing what lovely and adventurous dogs they are and what a nightmare unfolds when they escape into suburbia, believe me its scary. Also the experience would have traumatised the lovely hound. Anyway our Afghan Kara was a special guest on the website of an Afghan Hound living in Osaka. We contacted them to find out the destiny of this dog and were kept informed across the following days.

Apparently the dog became famous across the country with Afghan Hound lovers leading the call to save it and eventually the disruption costs were withdrawn by the police. Offers to house it came from across Japan and abroad and eventually the dog was resettled. My little sister suggested hopefully it may have been the original owner, I hoped so too.

Melbourne Australia is world famous for its commuter trams. Tracks converge on central Melbourne from north, south, east and west. Vintage trams circle the CBD and travel is free inside this city centre.